Ben Miller at Oil Lease Powerhouse 1951 (Elmore, Ohio)

Ben Miller stands next to his oil lease powerhouse in Elmore, Ohio in 1951. A one cylinder engine with huge flywheel was installed to pump the wells. THe engine was powered by natural gas from the wells. A belt approximately a foot wide ran from the engine along the entire length of the building (about 30 ft.). It then turned an offset turntable in which a length of heavy cable pulled the wells up and down. The son of the man in which the land was leased remembered Ben when he was a boy. He said that Ben would sit on the bench next to the door for hours, smoking a cigar, while the wells pumped. There were times that oil would be dripping from his hands and he would still be smoking the cigar.